Medical Council (GDR)
Medizinalrat (MR), also Obermedizinalrat (OMR), were titles that were awarded to doctors and dentists in the GDR in recognition of meritorious work in the state health system .
Award requirements
The titles could be awarded for many years of successful work in a management position in institutions, state organs of health and social services or in social organizations. These institutions, state bodies or organizations had excellent results in solving the tasks of the state health and social services to increase the quality and effectiveness of medical work. The award of the title was also possible if the institutions, organs or organizations could demonstrate excellent knowledge in the development and application of modern knowledge of medical science, research and technology in medical practice.
The recipient of the award had to be responsible for the guidance of at least eight people with a university or technical college education and had to have been in charge for at least seven years. If the management activity has been exercised for at least 15 years, the title of senior medical officer could be awarded.
Award process
The title of Senior Medical Councilor could only be bestowed by the Minister of Health of the GDR, the title of Medical Councilor by the chairman of the responsible council of the district . The decision on the award of the title was made in agreement with the health care union.
The titles were awarded on December 11, Robert Koch's birthday and Health Care Day in the GDR. The awardee received a certificate and was entitled to use the title in connection with his name. It was the highest title ever to be held; it could also be revoked again.
Awarded as a concession to the "persistence of educated bourgeois milieus"?
The historian Arnd Bauerkämper sees the awarding of the title as a kind of concession by the party and state leadership of the GDR to educated middle-class groups , which also included doctors. He writes in his book “The Social History of the GDR”: “After ordinances passed in 1960/61, doctors were able to inherit their practices and hold traditional titles such as medical , medical and senior medical advice. The open border, which made it possible for urgently needed qualified doctors, engineers, teachers and professors to emigrate to the Federal Republic of Germany until 1961, forced the party and state leadership in the GDR to make material concessions to groups of educated citizens. "
See however
swell
- Ordinance on the awarding of the titles "Sanitätsrat", "Pharmazierat", "Medizinalrat", "Oberpharmazierat" and "Obermedizinalrat" of December 20, 1972 (Journal of Laws of 1973 I p. 1)
- Order on the award of the titles of Medizinalrat, Pharmazierat , Sanitätsrat , Obermedizinalrat and Oberpharmazierat dated June 1, 1978 ( Journal of Laws I p. 239), amended by Order No. 2 (November 28, 1988) in the Law Gazette of the German Democratic Republic 1989, p . 27 (now also for deserving family doctors)
Individual evidence
- ^ Arnd Bauerkämper: The social history of the GDR. Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-57637-2 ( Encyclopedia of German History 76), p. 36.